It is known in the manufacture of motor vehicles and other articles of manufacture to attach together a pair of tubes that meet each other at a right angle or an acute angle to form a T-shaped joint. The tubes are butted together and then attached by conventional welding processes, for example by spot welding or other fusion welding processes. In other cases, one of the tubes can have a hole provided therein for receiving an end of the other tube, and then the conventional welding process is employed. The welding together of tubes in this manner is especially challenging in the case of relatively thin walled tubes where the application of heat during the welding process may cause distortion of one or both of the tubes.